Previews

Today at E3, I got some hands-on time with World of Tanks Blitz, the mobile port of Wargaming.net’s heavily popular game of the same title, minus the Blitz part. Wargaming.net has already successfully ported this game to Xbox 360, and has had a lot of success with it, both with getting even more players interested in the game, and smoothly managing to port the game. So, needless to say, they did a pretty dang good job porting it to the mobile platforms.

The title we have known about for a while, Yoshi Yarn, finally has an official name and a release window. Yoshi’s Wooly World is coming to the Wii U platform in 2015 and has a similar look to Kirby’s Epic Yarn in that it uses yarn as the primary element to create the world.

Have you ever wanted to create your own Super Mario Bros level? Maybe you have an idea to create something amazing or just want to slightly modify an existing level. This can all be done in the brand new Mario Maker coming to the Wii U.

At E3 2014, I had the chance to sit down with Astro Gaming to see their new product line. Astro Gaming is known for creating some of the highest quality gaming headsets on the market today and our review of the Astro A50 and Astro A40 proves just that. Astro is now heading into more of a mainstream electronic with the upcoming release of the Astro A38. This is a bluetooth headset that will connect to your PlayStation Vita, Android Smart Phone, iPhone, iPad, and other tablets and mobile devices.

Today at E3 I was able to get a hands-on glimpse at Game Insight’s X-Mercs Invasion, developed by Bad Rabbit. During my time with the game, I was told that it will be coming out sometime late this summer, for any of you that might want to know--and personally, I would, as it was pretty fun to play.

Running Shadow, though a game of a genre that I’ve never really cared for all that much, caught my eye a bit when I sat down with it at Game Insight, today at E3. Visually compared to other games of the runner genre of mobile games, Running Shadow grabbed my attention - and on top of that, it brings a slight RPG aspect to the game as well, which is a definite ‘one-up’ to me.

The world of Borderlands is expanding with Tales from the Borderlands from TellTale Games. Just because you see the title Borderlands, don’t expect a First Person Shooter. This is very much an adventure game built on the same engine that other great TellTale franchises were built on like The Walking Dead and The Wolf Among Us.

Several months after the events of Dead Island and Dead Island Riptide, the virus has begun to spread. It reaches the coast of California and the government actually quarantines the state--thus making it a brand new “Dead Island.” Dead Island 2 is Paradise meets hell--with iconic beaches of California as the backdrop to a brand new Zombie Playground.

2014 will bring many new things to the market. Sadly, this does not include a new entry in the Tiger Woods series from EA. This leaves a hole in the market and The Golf Club hopes to fill it. Currently available on Steam Early Access, The Golf Club puts players on an equal playing field by giving everyone the same clubs. It is up to your skill to make you stand out.

Well, I think I may actually have a steampunk style game that I will actually like in the not too distant future. BattleCry blends third-person action arena style gameplay similar to GunZ and S4 League with nice steampunk visual feel. In it’s current stage of development I would liken the blood effects to that of Borderlands and it’s character model styles a bit to that of Team Fortress 2. I feel it looks very promising at this point--I don’t think arena battle style games have gotten the recognition due to them, and I think that this game could be the turning for point for it’s genre.

Block Story… Well, I’ll just put it out there, since it’s inevitable… It has a very Minecraft-esque feel about it. Okay, now that that is out of the way, let’s talk about Block Story a bit, since that’s what this is about after all. You can build or fight anything you set your eyes on. fFom the friendly NPC (Non-Player Character) sitting in front of you, to huge spiders, to sharks, to that cute little lizard scurrying beneath your feet—-everything is fair game.

At an event, Disney unveiled the next iteration of Disney Infinity featuring Marvel characters like Spider-Man, Captain America, Thor, Hulk, Black Widow, and others in Disney Infinity Marvel Super Heroes. In this 2.0 iteration of the game, players are not only going to be able to continue the fun on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Wii--but they will be able to play on the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Wii U, and PC platforms.

Skylanders creator, and Developer, Toys for Bob took the last game off to work on the next big thing for Skylanders. Today, we finally know what they have been working on: Skylanders Trap Team. Revealed at an event in New York City, Skylanders has some new tricks up their sleeves to get you to open up your wallet for more fun. The goal with all of the Skylanders games is to bring toys to life. This time, however, they wanted to reverse the magic and bring something new to life.

Shinji Mikami is the brilliant mind behind The Evil Within. Having single-handedly creating the Survival Horror genre with the original Resident Evil title, he knows a thing or two about scaring people. Mikami hopes to take the magic he created with Resident Evil in his new franchise, The Evil Within.

There is nothing more fun than getting three friends together for some epic First Person Shooting in a 4 Player cooperative session of Borderlands. The game has it all: a sense of humor, epic storyline, loot, more loot, and even more loot. Did I mention that Borderlands is more fun because of the loot? Dubbed a First Person Shooter of Diablo, Gearbox Software has created an epic franchise and Borderlands 2 even became the best selling title in 2K’s history. Most impressive Gearbox! So how about a sequel? Better yet, how about a Pre-Sequel to the Sequel Borderlands 2?

I have fond memories of Alpha Centari. For those of you who don’t recall it, this was the game Sid Meier created to be Civilization in space. It was well received and was the first title they did with online capabilities. Sadly, it has never received a sequel. At PAX East, 2K Games and Firaxis proudly unveiled Sid Meier’s Civilization: Beyond Earth. This is the first time the team has focussed on a title set in space since Alpha Centari!